Shilpa and Praful Shah have devoted their life to hand-crafted textiles and art that tell the India story

Collectors Shilpa and Praful Shah have devoted a lifetime to hand-crafted textiles and art that tell the India story.

On view until February 17 at the Special Exhibitions Gallery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS),
Life & People in the 19th Century: Company Paintings in the TAPI and CSMVS Collections is a unique show that portrays India through the eyes of the officials of the British East India Company. When the company put down roots its South Asia in the late 1700s, many of its employees moved from England to work in India. As they travelled through the length and breadth of the country, they encountered ancient monuments, exotic people, unusual landscapes, flora and fauna. “To me, these paintings were like curiosity cards that the English would take back home to show what life around them was like; what the natives looked like and the clothes they wore,” says Praful Shah, founder of the iconic Garden Vareli brand, which is synonymous with floral-printed silk sarees. Shah has also cofounded the Textiles & Art of the People of India (TAPI) collection along with wife Shilpa.

Sitting in the boardroom of their Churchgate office, Shilpa points out that the standout features of Company painting are the subject and the palette. “Until the British arrived, Indian artists were used to painting brightly coloured miniatures. The British patrons were instrumental in bringing softer colours to India — watercolours, and the technique of perspective and shading. In fact, research suggests that the change in style was brought about because of the East India Company style of painting [known as the Company School of paintings].”

It was Shilpa’s curiosity that drew the couple to collect Company School paintings nearly 40 years ago. “We scoured everything, from Phillips Antiques to old bookshops in Bath to antique stores at the Portobello market in London,” she says. “There were always old Company School paintings lying around.” Their selection of Company paintings — much like their collection of over 4,000 textiles — tell the story of India like none other. “Textiles generated our interest in art. When I returned from Stanford University to join my father’s textile factory in the late 1960s, I first set up the textile design studio and printery. We come from a textile background and we felt obligated to do something about its history,” says Praful.

The couple started looking at Kashmiri shawls in the 1970s, which marked the beginning of their exquisite textile collection. “Kashmir’s kani shawl weaving had virtually come to an end by the 1870s. So by the 1970s, the shawls were already 100-year-old antiquities. Apart from this, the TAPI collection includes largely-unseen Indian heirloom textiles, recovered from Asia, Africa and Europe, and some exceptional historic textiles. Such as rare 15th or 16th century hand-drawn mordant and resist-dyed patterned textiles, made in Gujarat, which were transported to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi during the spice trade; early Kalamkari textiles exported to Thailand; chintzes sent to the European market; Balucharis from Bengal; Deccani and Nathdwara pichhwais as well as 18th and 19th century Patan Patolas. Every region of India has its own textile tradition. An artist working in Murshidabad creates things that are very different from those of someone working in the Coromandel Coast or in Burhanpur, and we try to showcase that,” says Shilpa.

For the last two years, the collection has been thematically arranged in two temperature-controlled galleries in Surat, where people can view them. For a while the Shahs even toyed with the idea of setting up a museum in Surat. “But we realised that museums involve certain legalities, which didn’t suit our priority,” says Praful. “Besides, we can’t let this collection just be in Surat and expect people to come and view it. We must take it to institutions, both in India and abroad. For instance, our Pichwai collection travelled to the Art Institute of Chicago. The more people see it, the happier we feel.”

The couple also has a unique modern and contemporary art collection with works by MF Husain, SH Raza, Tyeb Mehta, NS Bendre, Bhupen Khakhar, Atul and Anju Dodiya. “This is a family collection which was never created with a grand idea of building something. We started this collection because we believed in it, and then got different experts to study it,” says Shilpa.

An artist in his own right, Praful spends much of his leisure painting in the studio at his Churchgate office. He counts Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter and N S Bendre as his inspirations. A portrait of Bendre by Praful even sits at the entrance to the office. Praful has been painting for the last two decades, “but I haven’t exhibited my work and it has always been a bit private,” he says. “In the first year when I started, I was uncertain of my abilities. But my works have been viewed by my friends Bhupen Khakhar, Amit Ambalal and MF Husain. We would chat over a glass of wine. Husain was very encouraging; he told me to keep at it.” Yet, he doesn’t consider himself an artist. “I feel my role is that of a person who likes to play with colour,” says Praful, whose most cherished piece of work remains a portrait of his wife Shilpa that he painted nearly two decades ago. Much like a Company School, it’s a beautiful rendition using a subdued palette.

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